What is special about Silene stenophylla?

Have you heard the story of the sleeping beauty that slept for one hundred years? Although, not all that happens in stories happens in real life, sleeping seeds can do a far better job than what the sleeping princess can! The seeds of silene stenophylla, a flowering plant found in Siberia, slept under the Arctic ice for more than 30,000 years!

A group of scientists discovered more than 600,000 frozen mature and immature seeds of this plant burried in squirrel burrows near the banks of the river Kolyma in 2007. Arctic ground squirrels are believed to have buried them during the ice Age. With the help of the latest dating techniques, scientists determined that the seeds were around 31,800 years old.

They planted some of the seeds, and tried to germinate some of them. It was a heartening sight to see the ancient plant bringing forth little white blooms and fruits after more than 30,000 years. The discovery, and the experiment, left the plant the most ancient, viable, multi-cellular, living organism on Earth.

 

Picture Credit : Google